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Ocean City's city council has voted 5-2 to designate the former Gillian's Wonderland Pier site as "in need of rehabilitation," clearing a procedural path for Icona Resorts owner Eustace Mita to pursue a 252-room hotel on the storied New Jersey boardwalk property.
The vote does not authorize construction but triggers a planning process — and a lawsuit. A Century-Old Institution Gives Way to Capital Gillian's Wonderland Pier was woven into the identity of the Jersey Shore.
David Gillian founded Gillian's Fun Deck around 1930; Roy Gillian rebranded and expanded it as Gillian's Wonderland Pier in 1965, building an attraction defined by its carousel, monorail, and 144-foot Giant Wheel.
For nearly a century, the park drew families to a city of roughly 11,000 year-round residents that swells to more than 100,000 tourists per day each summer.
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